Does your appointment schedule seem to be a bit more open than you would like? If so, it might be time to audit the way you engage with your patients. You could be missing out on some possible opportunities that could be leading to a high dropout rate. See how you can improve the completion of therapy plans and reach the finish line when it comes to your patient’s treatments.
You?re not communicating the full process of their therapy plan
Your therapy patients know how their therapy treatment begins, but are they aware of how it will end? It could lead to a higher dropout rate if they are not aware of the importance of the full process in regards to their therapy sessions. Patients will likely continue rehabilitation to a completion if they know more about future goals which help them understand the true value of future sessions. In addition, it is also important to communicate the effects that can happen if they don?t complete the recommended weeks of therapy. Some patients believe that once they are feeling better that the therapy is complete. But, they may be unaware of expectations that they need to achieve after an assumption of feeling better. Be sure to instill the importance of finishing all scheduled appointments and let them know about the full process with a value being just as important from beginning to end.
Are your therapy patients being challenged?
When it comes to losing patients over time it can be because of loss of interest and challenge in your sessions. Make sure that your patient is engaged and improving during each session. Believe it or not, they may be bored with your program or it can be too easy for them. This will eventually lead to a loss of interest which will result into a dropout overtime. To avoid this potential issue, it?s key to communicate with them and see if they need a more challenging routine that keeps them striving to get better and improve.
Make sure to keep patients engaged with home exercise programs
Don?t forget to keep patients engaged before and after their therapy sessions. The right EMR software can help your practice with home exercise protocols that can provide you the ability to build exercise programs to fit a patient’s rehabilitation needs. Having the access to share online videos and content that provides exercises and instructions on how to continue rehabilitation in between sessions is a great way keep them on pace and improving their health to build on your efforts. See how Practice Pro fully integrates with Physiotec and BlueJay Mobile Health to allow therapists to create HEPs through our EMR system. A therapist can simply upload programs in the patients’ medical records allowing access anywhere at any time. Each session can allow for only so much improvement and the time dedicated to rehabilitation after your session is just as important when it comes to achieving results. So, when you provide easy access and mindshare with Home Exercise Programs it keeps patients engaged with a better ability to achieve successful results.
Patients may be too busy or inconvenienced
Adding a therapy program into busy schedules of patients sure can be tough. Long work hours, childcare needs and other time-consuming daily tasks can lead to an eventual early drop-out. Think about it. The hour session that you provide is not the only time that will be allocated to your session. Transportation time to and from your clinic is also a factor that can add to what is already a busy schedule. A solution like telehealth allows patients to cut out transportation and childcare factors that may be creating cancellations and dropouts. Having the ability to provide this option will increase your chances of completion and finishing their full plan of therapy treatments. It?s a great way to combat and offer a remote way to fit into their busy schedule with instant access to remote sessions that keep them a little less busy and you a little more busy when it comes to filling your schedule up with appointments.
Once you get a new patient it?s important to maximize the lifecycle of their road to recovery. Visit our website to learn more on how Practice Pro can help your practice avoid drop-outs and keep schedules full. See how our EMR software solutions can provide a better way to improve patient engagement and the way your business runs with a demo today.